: Sandeep Kollarakkandi has no background in photography. He runs a civil engineering firm in Kozhikode. But living next to the Sarovaram Biopark has its own advantages. You get to see the flora and fauna that is usually alien to today’s generation. Watching the birds here, Sandeep could not suppress his urge to capture them on camera. He finally purchased a camera. The images captured by Sandeep over a period of two years are a perfect pictorial documentation of the bird population in the Bio park that is on the verge of destruction due to public apathy. “Most of these are native birds, while there are a few that come from other places too. I had to try relentlessly for months to get the perfect shot of some of these,” Sandeep said.
He has deliberately avoided all things that could break the perfect scenic image of Sarovaram Bio Park from his pictures. “There have been many occasions when a perfect picture was spoiled due to an abandoned plastic bottle in the frame. Once I captured a crane picking up a fish that turned out to be a plastic bag. It was a heart breaking sight,” he confessed.
Sandeep is pained by the pollution caused by dumping of waste across the 98 acres of the Bio Park. “The Kalipoika that used to be a perfect boating location is a pit full of discarded bottles now. One cannot take a boat into it,” he said.
Enthused by the bird diversity in the park, Sandeep even visited similar Bio Parks elsewhere in the country and was amazed to see how well they were maintained. “Those places do not have the biodiversity that we have here. Still they are well kept. We could replicate it here with a little effort,” he said with a request to the authorities to clean the Conolly canal as a first step towards a cleaner Bio Park.
An exhibition of Sandeep’s photographs of the birds started at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery in Kozhikode on April 25. The photographs introduce one to around 60 different species of birds. The exhibition will conclude on April 30.
